A substantial deposit of petroleum and natural gas has been discovered in Pakistan’s territorial waters, a cache so large its exploitation could change the country’s destiny, DawnNewsTV quoted a senior security official as saying on Friday.
According to the official, who is understood to be privy to the development, a three-year survey was undertaken in collaboration with a friendly country to verify the presence of the oil and gas reserves.
Terming it an effort to benefit from what he called the ‘blue water economy’, the official said that proposals for bidding and exploration were being studied, meaning that the exploration work can be started in the near future.
The official said that taking the initiative and acting quickly could help turn around the country’s economic fortunes.
When asked if these reserves are enough to meet the country’s energy needs, he said it depends on the size and recovery rate of the production. “If this is a gas reserve, it can replace LNG imports and if these are oil reserves, we can substitute imported oil.”
He pointed out that exploration alone required hefty investment of around $5 billion and it might take four to five years to extract reserves from an offshore location.
He said if the exploration resulted in the discovery of reserves, then further investment would be needed for wells and laying down the infrastructure to extract the reserves and produce fuel.